In the best Division I men's lacrosse game of the weekend, and
one that might hold up as one of the best this year, Colgate
defeated Bryant 14-13 in overtime Sunday on Jimmy Ryan's fourth goal on a
cold, February afternoon in Rhode Island.

The game showed NEC favorite Bryant, ranked 20th in the
preseason by Lacrosse Magazine, has staying power and
Colgate is big-game ready.

But the way by which the teams reached overtime might have left
the biggest takeaway for the rest of 2013.

Uncertainty had been a theme of the preseason, and not just with
prognosticating what teams might be in store for a good year. There
also are new questions centered on the myriad of rules changes
implemented by the NCAA rules committee this offseason.

Sunday's late-game sequence showed what the college lacrosse
world could expect this year — no one-goal lead in the final
minutes will ever be safe — and raised some concerns with the
mechanics of the shot clock countdown itself.

Colgate led 13-12 with less than a minute left in regulation
and, with the ball in its possession, a stall warning and 30-second
shot clock was put on by the officials. Raiders coach Mike Murphy
called timeout with 55 seconds left, according the game clock on
the field. Under the new rules, if an offenisve team calls timeout
with more than 10 seconds remaining in the 30-second count, the
shot clock will be moved to 10 seconds on the restart, putting the
team that called timeout in a tough position.

Out of the timeout, Peter Baum tried to find open space and
Colgate took a high and wide shot with 41 seconds appearing on the
game clock. According to that timing, Colgate should have not been
allowed to take a shot when it did. The Raiders apparently had
extra four seconds to shoot. These types of discrepancies should be
expected without a visible shot clock in place on the field. Good
thing Baum misfired, and the fact that the shot went off at all had
no direct influence on the outcome.

Bryant got the ball back anyway, and this did have a direct
influence on the outcome. Sophomore midfielder Brian Schlansker
scored on the other end with eight seconds left to send the game to
overtime.

Gone are the days when a defense had to send multiple defenders
at a ball-carrier in the box to try to get the ball back with a
stall warning on. The clock did its job Sunday, sort of.

Johns Hopkins opens it up

Both Johns Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala and Siena coach John
Svec sat down for post-game press conferences Friday night inside a
meeting room at the Blue Jays' fancy lacrosse-only complex and
wondered aloud the same thing: When was the last time Johns Hopkins
took 58 shots in a game?

Both needed to be reminded. It was 2004, against Albany, when
the Blue Jays took 61.

"Was I the head coach here?" Pietramala joked with a reporter
who relayed the information.

"You know I was at that game, right?" said Svec, who was an
Albany assistant from 2001 to 2008.

Part of it is because of the new NCAA rules that encourage a
quicker pace. Part of it is the way the Blue Jays exited the
postseason last year with a 11-5 loss in the quarterfinals against
Maryland, the second straight year Johns Hopkins' season ended in
that round.

"If you continue to do what you've done, you shouldn't expect
any results to be different," Pietramala said. "For two years,
we've had great regular seasons and we've come up short in the
end... The rules helped us a little bit, but I also think the
Maryland game helped us. The plan over the summer defensively was
we were going to play faster, extend a little bit more and, in
doing so, try to push transition.

"Then, instead of having to play faster defensively, the NCAA
decided to put a shot clock in. Teams can't hold the ball for an
extended period of time. We made a commitment to try to play
faster, put the ball in play faster, which I thought we did today.
I thought we played faster from defense to offense... It's been a
philosophical change. We've conditioned more than we've ever
had."

For one game, the pace of play seemed crisp and fast even on a
chilly, wet night at Homewood Field in Baltimore. Siena goalie Matt
Sharp, making his first start, finished with 20 saves, and plenty
of other goalies may put up career bests this season.

"Love it, love it," Svec said when asked for his thoughts on the
new rules. "The single biggest impact the rules have made, besides
getting everyone confused, is no horns. I think it's great. It
might take a little bit of the in-game coaching away, but it puts
the onus on the athletes. Tonight you saw some very good athletes
on both sides."

The 15 Division I men's games this weekend averaged 77.66 shots,
with six games featuring more than 80 between the two teams.
Sunday's Colgate-Bryant game had the most (96), with Colgate taking
the most of any team this weekend (59). Navy took 58 shots in a
blowout win over VMI, and Penn State took 57 shots in a five-goal
win at Michigan.

But there also were three teams that won by taking no more than
38 shots, including Bucknell, which beat Delaware by taking 30, the
same number as the Blue Hens.

It's hard to make a sweeping declaration about the new rules off
one weekend in February, but at the very least, all the discussion
this offseason about speeding up the game has encouraged one of the
game's most prominent programs to get in the fast lane.

"Very happy with the number of shots we took," Pietramala said.
"We're trying to play faster. I thought that was obvious
tonight."

Program Debuts

Northwestern beat UMass 16-4 and USC 18-5, and UMass beat USC
18-9. An announced crowd of 2,890 was present at the Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum on a clear, 62-degree evening for USC's
first-ever game against the Wildcats.

In other Division I women's debuts, Winthrop lost to Navy 23-4,
Stetson fell to Liberty 16-3, and Kennesaw State lost to Vanderbilt
22-3.